Born in Chennai, India, Aishwarya moved to the United States as an infant. Her family first landed in Amherst, following a brief stint in Chicago, and ultimately settling in Houston where she spent a good portion of her youth. Throughout her childhood, home-cooked meals and gathering around the table served as the continuous thread within Aishwarya's nomadic upbringing, and she attributes these experiences as something she's returned to when building the brand. Moreover, the very places that shaped Aishwarya's life would ultimately become the backdrop to the people she would connect (and reconnect) with to inspire Brightland's DNA. She builds on this theme of connection by sharing an important anecdote about reconnecting with a high school friend who she derived inspiration from in those early days, “It was one of my friends from high school, actually,” Aishwarya reflects. “She lived in Austin (and now she lives in New York City), but when she was living there, I spent a week with her in March of 2017 and talked through Brightland with her quite a bit. She is just someone I really look up to. I remember when I was thinking through: Who is my customer? What are they like? What did they like? I wrote her name down and put her picture there. Her photo was sort of the centerpiece example of Brightland's early customer.”

While she is quick to keep precise details around the identity of her friend under wraps, Aishwarya instead fills in the gaps with a resolute statement: "I don't think it was one person. It was so many people — people at the UC Davis Olive Center; it was different farms we were selecting between; it was our branding company. I don't think I can really nail it down." It's clear at that moment that the art of connection permeates every part of Aishwarya's entrepreneurial process, and the founder quietly steers the conversation in a direction that aligns more congruently with Brightland’s mission: the importance of connecting with your past just as much as your present to create a better future.

Perhaps that's the lesson here. Past familial traditions may have paved the way for Brightland's product, but it's the present action of reconnecting with those individuals that ultimately enabled Brightland to transcend the expectations of a lifestyle brand by inspiring substantive conversation and accountability for modern consumers to get back to the basics. It's a tall order to fill, especially given the brand's innate digital origins, which adds a nuanced element to our conversation. I ask her how she views connection in relation to our social-media-obsessed world, particularly since it has become an essential cornerstone for modern brands to survive. “I love the human connection. I love that it's tactile and analog,” she sighs. “I don't want to see human connection lost in the food industry. I don't want technology to overtake really beautiful tactile and analog experience — I want technology to add to it.”

As she responds, I quickly stop myself from reaching for my phone, and instead, glance across the room to peer into my kitchen. There, a bottle of Brightland's beloved flavor, AWAKE, is proudly displayed. On Brightland's site, I later read that the smoke point of this oil is 410 degrees along with a written encouragement not to "shy away from the heat required of certain dishes." I realize that Brightland is turning up the heat in many ways with this rallying cry to reclaim the space to taste food—and live life—fully.

In this day and age, there's an aspect of transience that makes us quick to build brands, plan our exits, and build our professional acclaim, but Aishwarya's story shows us that remaining connected to our mission opens us up to connect with those who can shape the businesses we're building in new and enduring ways. “This seems like a good place to stop,” I tell her as we reach the final point of our conversation. What follows is an exchange of pleasantries and an unspoken understanding that while this interview may be coming to an end, Aishwarya is just getting started.